History of Burgundy
Origins The Empire of Burgundy was a successor of the earlier Kingdom of the Burgundians, which evolved out of territories ruled by the Burgundians, an East Germanic tribe that arrived in Gaul in the 5th century. The Burgundians settled in the area around Dijon, Chalon-sur-Saône, Mâcon, Autun and Châtillon-sur-Seine, and gave the name to the region. The Kingdom of the Burgundians was annexed by the Merovingian King of the Franks, Childebert I, in 534, following their defeat by the Franks. It was recreated, however, on several occasions when Frankish territories were redivided between the sons on the death of a Frankish king. As part of the Kingdom of the Franks, Burgundy maintained a semi-autonomous existence, with the Burgundians maintaining their own law code, the Loi Gombette. However, southern Burgundy was pillaged by the Saracen invasion of the 8th century. When Charles Martel drove the invaders out, he divided Burgundy into four commands: Arles-Burgundy, Vienne-Burgundy, Alamanic Burgundy and Frankish Burgundy. He appointed his brother Childebrand governor of Frankish Burgundy. Under the Carolingians, Burgundian separatism lessened and Burgundy became a purely geographical term, referring only to the area of the counties of the former Burgundy. Both the Duchy of Burgundy and the County of Burgundy emerged from these counties, aided by the collapse of Carolingian centralism and the division of the Frankish domains brought about by the Partition of Verdun in 843. In the midst of this confusion, Guerin of Provence attached himself to Charles the Bald, youngest son of King Louis the Pious of the Franks, and aided him in the Battle of Fontenay against Charles's eldest brother, the Emperor Lothar. When the Frankish kingdom in the west was divided along the boundary of the Saône and Meuse (dividing geographical Burgundy in the process), Guerin was rewarded for his services by the king by being granted the administration of the counties of Chalon and Nevers, in which he was by custom expected to appoint viscounts to rule as his deputies. As a vital military defender of the West Frankish border, Guerin was sometimes known by the Latin term for "leader" – dux or "duke". Elevations from Kingdom to Empire In 1469, Anne of Burgundy, the bastard daughter of Philip the Good who was later fully legitimized, married the son of John II of Aragon, Ferdinand the Catholic. Ferdinand II died in 1481 leaving two daughters and no son. With his brothers in Navarre barred from uniting the Kingdom of Navarre and Aragon, Charles the Bold claimed the right to the Throne of Aragon. With no other legitimate candidates, Charles the Bold united the two Kingdoms into the Empire of Burgundy. With this, Burgundy began to foster a strong naval tradition in the Mediterranean. Charles the Bold died in 1501 without a son, and his brother David, who was the Bishop of Utrecht, had been dead for some years now. The last male son of Philip the Good was Antoine, the Grand Bastard. In Charles’ will, he named Antoine the rightful successor to the Empire and had him fully legitimized as a member of the House of Burgundy. Antoine’s succession was faced with heavy revolts in Aragon who had been fully integrated into the Empire, and by John II, Count of Nevers. John was a close cousin of the ruling house as he was the son of Philip II. John referred to the Lex Burgundionum stating that Antoine was placed in behind all the legitimates in the right of succession. A civil war broke out in 1507 where John took control of Aragon. Antoine was able to subdue the rebellion and offered to John for his return the dignity of Monsieur le Prince, as the most senior Princely house in the Realm. John’s rebellion was officially over but the people of Aragon were still in revolt. The Italian Wars During the Italian Wars, Burgundy became involved in the War of the League of Cambrai in 1508 while also dealing with a Civil War. By 1511, the revolts were subdued and Aragon was being integrated once more. In the aftermath of the First Italian War, Pope Alexander VI had, with French assistance, moved to consolidate Papal control over central Italy by seizing the Romagna. Cesare Borgia, acting as Gonfalonier of the Papal armies, had expelled the Bentivoglio family from Bologna, which they had ruled as a fief, and was well on his way towards establishing a permanent Borgia state in the region when Alexander died on 18 August 1503. Although Cesare managed to seize the remnants of the Papal treasury for his own use, he was unable to secure Rome itself, as French and Spanish armies converged on the city in an attempt to influence the Papal conclave; the election of Pius III (who soon died, to be replaced by Julius II) stripped Cesare of his titles and relegated him to commanding a company of men-at-arms. Sensing Cesare's weakness, the dispossessed lords of the Romagna offered to submit to the Republic of Venice in exchange for aid in regaining their dominions; the Venetian Senate accepted and had taken possession of Rimini, Faenza and a number of other cities by the end of 1503. Julius II, having secured his own control of the Papal armies by arresting and imprisoning Cesare, first in Rome and later in Madrid, quickly moved to re-establish Papal control over the Romagna by demanding that Venice return the cities she had seized. The Republic of Venice, although willing to acknowledge Papal sovereignty over these port cities along the Adriatic coast and willing to pay Julius II an annual tribute, refused to surrender the cities themselves. In response, Julius concluded an alliance with Franceand the Holy Roman Empire against Venice; the death of Isabella I of Castile and the resulting collapse of relations between the parties soon dissolved the alliance, but not before Venice had been induced to abandon several of the cities. Julius, although unsatisfied with his gains, did not himself possess sufficient forces to fight the Republic; for the next two years he instead occupied himself with the reconquest of Bologna and Perugia, which, located between Papal and Venetian territory, had in the meantime assumed a status of quasi-independence. In 1507, Julius returned to the question of the cities in Venetian hands; once again rebuffed by the Senate, he encouraged Emperor Maximilian I to attack the Republic. Maximilian, using his journey to Rome for the Imperial coronation as a pretext, entered Venetian territory with a large army in February 1508 and advanced on Vicenza, but was defeated by a Venetian army under Bartolomeo d'Alviano. A second assault by a Tyrolean force several weeks later was an even greater failure; Alviano not only routed the Imperial army but also seized Trieste and Fiume, forcing Maximilian to conclude a truce with Venice. The League of Cambrai Julius, humiliated by the failure of the Imperial invasion, turned to Antoine I of France (who, having been left in possession of Milan after the Second Italian War, was interested in further expansion into Italy) with an offer of alliance. In mid-March, the Republic provided a pretext for an attack on itself by appointing her own candidate to the vacant bishopric of Vicenza (an act in keeping with prevailing custom, though Julius considered it a personal provocation); the Pope called for all Christian nations to join him in an expedition to subdue Venice. On 10 December 1508, representatives of the Papacy, Burgundy, the Holy Roman Empire and Ferdinand I of Spain concluded the League of Cambrai against the Republic. The agreement provided for the complete dismemberment of Venice's territory in Italy and for its partition among the signatories: Maximilian, in addition to regaining Istria, would receive Verona, Vicenza, Padua and the Friuli; France would annex Brescia, Crema, Bergamo and Cremona to its Milanese possessions; Ferdinand would seize Otranto; and the remainder, including Rimini and Ravenna, would be added to the Papal States.12 On 15 April 1509, Louis left Milan at the head of a French army and moved rapidly into Venetian territory. To oppose him, Venice had hired a condottiere army under the command of the Orsini cousins – Bartolomeo d'Alviano and Niccolò di Pitigliano – but had failed to account for their disagreement on how best to stop the French advance. Consequently, when Louis crossed the Adda River in early May and Alviano advanced to meet him, Pitigliano, believing it best to avoid a pitched battle, moved away to the south. On 14 May, Alviano confronted the French at the Battle of Agnadello; outnumbered, he sent requests for reinforcements to his cousin, who replied with orders to break off the battle and continued on his way. Alviano, disregarding the new orders, continued the engagement; his army was eventually surrounded and destroyed. Pitigliano managed to avoid encountering Louis; but his mercenary troops, hearing of Alviano's defeat, had deserted in large numbers by the next morning, forcing him to retreat to Treviso with the remnants of the Venetian army. The Venetian collapse was complete. Antoine proceeded to occupy Venetian territory as far east as Brescia without encountering any significant resistance; the Venetians lost all the territory that they had accumulated in northern Italy during the previous century. The major cities that had not been occupied by the French—Padua, Verona and Vicenza—were left undefended by Pitigliano's withdrawal, and quickly surrendered to Maximilian when Imperial emissaries arrived in the Veneto. Julius, having in the meantime issued an interdict against Venice that excommunicated every citizen of the Republic, invaded the Romagna and seized Ravenna with the assistance of Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. D'Este, having joined the League and been appointed Gonfalonier on 19 April, seized the Polesine for himself. The newly arrived Imperial governors, however, quickly proved to be unpopular. In mid-July, the citizens of Padua, aided by detachments of Venetian cavalry under the command of the proveditor Andrea Gritti, revolted. The landsknechts garrisoning the city were too few in number to mount effective resistance, and Padua was restored to Venetian control on 17 July 1509. The success of the revolt finally pushed Maximilian into action. In early August, a massive Imperial army, accompanied by bodies of French and Spanish troops, set out from Trento into the Veneto. Because of a lack of horses, as well as general disorganization, Maximilian's forces would not reach Padua until September, giving Pitigliano the time to concentrate such troops as were still available to him in the city. The Siege of Padua began on 15 September 1509; although French and Imperial artillery successfully breached Padua's walls, the defenders managed to hold the city until Maximilian, growing impatient, lifted the siege on 30 September and withdrew to Tyrol with the main part of his army. In mid-November, Pitigliano returned to the offensive; Venetian troops easily defeated the remaining Imperial forces, capturing Vicenza, Este, Feltre and Belluno. Although a subsequent attack on Verona failed, Pitigliano destroyed a Papal army under Francesco II of Gonzaga in the process. The Battle of Polesella, a river attack on Ferrara by the Venetian galley fleet under Angelo Trevisan failed, however, when the Venetian ships anchored in the Po River were sunk by Ferrarese artillery. Francesco Guicciardini credited the decisive victory to Alfonso himself. A new Burgundian advance soon forced Pitigliano to withdraw to Padua once again. Faced with a shortage of both funds and men, the Senate decided to send an embassy to Julius in order to negotiate a settlement. The terms insisted on by the Pope were harsh: the Republic lost her traditional power to appoint clergy in her territory, as well as all jurisdiction over Papal subjects in Venice, the Romagnan cities that had prompted the war were to be returned to Julius, and reparations were to be paid to cover his expenses in capturing them. The Senate argued over the terms for two months, but finally accepted them on February 24, 1510. Even before the Venetian ambassadors had presented themselves to Julius for absolution, however, the Council of Ten had privately resolved that the terms had been accepted under duress and were therefore invalid, and that Venice should violate them at the earliest opportunity. This apparent reconciliation between Venice and the Pope did not stop the French from again invading the Veneto in March. Pitigliano's death in January had left Andrea Gritti in command of the Venetian forces; although Maximilian failed to reinforce Louis, the French army was nonetheless sufficient to drive the Venetians from Vicenza by May. Gritti garrisoned Padua for an expected attack by a combined Franco-Imperial army, but Antoine, more concerned by the death of his advisor, the Cardinal d'Amboise, abandoned his plans for a siege. Aftermath The War ended in 1516 and was relatively a success for Burgundy in which they were able to integrate Genoa into the Empire, along with Savoy. Their holdings in Naples were later legitimized and recognized by the Pope. Antoine, with the massive influx of gold into the treasury, was able to invest it in the military, and development of the Empire. Government The Empire of Burgundy is comprised of two major administrative bodies, the Conseil de l'État (Council of the State) ''and the ''États généraux (Estates General). Conseil de l'État Edit The Conseil du Roi (French pronunciation: dy ʁwa; French for "The King's Council"), also known as the Royal Council, is a general term for the administrative and governmental apparatus around the King of France during the Ancien Régime designed to prepare his decisions and give him advice. It should not be confused with the role and title of a "Conseil du Roi", a type of public prosecutor in the French legal system at the same period. One of the established principles of the French monarchy was that the king could not act without the advice of his council. Under Charles V, it was put forward that the king made decisions only after "good and careful deliberation" (French: bonne et mûre délibération), and this principle was maintained by his successors; the closing formula of royal acts "le roi en son conseil" expressed this deliberative aspect. Even during the period of French absolutism, the expression "car tel est notre bon plaisir" ("because such is our pleasure") applied to royal decisions made with consultation.